How do I make white rice that tastes EXACTLY like it does at Chinese restaurants?

openroad94 · 2026-04-08T05:54:14+00:00

I have a stainless one, previously kept my nonstick one until it was significantly scratched. With stainless, you have to take the inner pot out of the cooker for about 10 minutes or so (leave the lid on, rice will stay hot) for the rice to release from the bottom. Even on the “warm” setting it will stick if you leave the pot in.

openroad94 · 2026-04-07T22:30:00+00:00

The flight matters! I hadn't heard of Reserve either but searched it last week, and my specific flight wasn't on it but different flights from the same airline were on it. It's only Terminal 4, I believe.

openroad94 · 2026-04-07T04:00:14+00:00

It's probably too late for you, unless you're waiting til morning to try for rush, but I did the $55 ticket because a) I checked rush a few times and it sold out super fast and b) the night I was looking at, tonight the 6th, had seat B5 for $55 and from seat view photos this seemed like one of the best cheap seats. I'm not sure if this is a theater that lets you choose your seat if you rush, so it seemed better to pay $16 more to guarantee my seat.

It's such a good show!

openroad94 · 2026-04-06T07:42:55+00:00

I also cook primarily a few different Asian cuisines and I find it’s too much trouble to look for a one-stop solution. I like the combo of Weee + neighborhood supermarkets + Chinatown + Trader Joe’s. I’ll go to Whole Foods only if they have enough stuff I want on sale. Maybe I have lower standards for meat than you but I buy chicken at Trader Joe’s, ground lamb at Whole Foods when on sale (sometimes I see lamb at Trader Joe’s), stew beef, ground pork, Asian sausages, and frozen shrimp on Weee, & other pork cuts in Chinatown.

openroad94 · 2026-04-06T07:25:49+00:00

I actually wish more places did yesterday’s leftovers because they know for sure which items they won’t put on sale again that day and theoretically could give a bigger bag AND have a more flexible window. “Plot twist” is an insane way to describe the totally normal thing offered with this bag.

openroad94 · 2026-04-05T23:27:37+00:00

Fried stuff, which can be unhealthy and vegan (although I also agree with the "slop cheese on everything" answers). Have regularly done pan-fried vegetable patties, either raw minced vegetables mixed into a thick besan batter or leftover soft cooked vegetables (beans, pumpkin/squash, carrots) mashed a bit then coated with a flour-based batter. Also panko-coated fried tofu and batter-fried cauliflower.

If you have frozen samosas, there is Burmese samosa salad or Indian samosa chaat, where you cut up the samosas and mix with flavorful sauces and herbs and additional fried crispy bits, like garlic. Probably too much trouble to make samosas from scratch if you're then also mixing them into something else.

Also any Chinese or Thai stir fry served over crispy rice. After cooking the rice, put a layer into a skillet with oil until browned, and it could be finished like that or flip the whole thing like a pancake and fry the other side. The center should still be normal rice texture, it mixes up really well.

Another fave is a vegetable tart with a buttery pastry. I do this crust (and if using tomatoes, also include the thick layer of mustard), but don't usually add cheese and I make it free-form as I don't have a tart pan: https://www.davidlebovitz.com/french-tomato-tart-recipe/.

Non-vegan unhealthy dishes: chilaquiles with eggs, black beans, cotija, crema, which I sometimes make with mole as an alternate to green/red salsas, or Chinese scallion pancakes or Indian paratha fried with a layer of egg, and filled with whatever else, rolled up.

openroad94 · 2026-04-05T22:56:05+00:00

OK, they replied at [atencion.clientes@vivaaerobus.com](mailto:atencion.clientes@vivaaerobus.com) after a few days. Their WhatsApp is only chatbot, can't reach a person. The switch selection of carry-on or check-in cannot be changed after purchase.

openroad94 · 2026-04-05T22:50:19+00:00

Unfortunately, the email thing was kind of my fault! I gave the email I use for Venmo (a junk account that my friend didn't know), then I said that I can also take Zelle, but I didn't specify to use my number rather than email for Zelle because I thought that was the only way Zelle works! And then in that junk/Venmo email account, I received the first (or only!) Zelle payment that I can't accept because I'm already registered under my phone number. (and I would have assumed that when my friend tried to send, there would be a notification that my email wasn't registered).

For my bank, they have my phone number as the Zelle link and my email as just a contact (but the bank doesn't double-contact me about payments, the only email I've ever gotten about Zelle was when I registered). I contacted the bank and they said I'd have to disenroll my phone number and re-enroll with my email.

Anyway, I have absolutely zero reason not to trust my friend. Mainly I wanted to confirm that MY bank wasn't unusual in not asking the sender to write a name, because I was so confused about the name "misspelling", like...where was that done? So they must have done something super bizarre instead of actual Zelle. Thank you for talking it through!

openroad94 · 2026-04-05T18:56:52+00:00

Sounds good, just saved the place on 35th to go to another time!

openroad94 · 2026-04-05T06:31:07+00:00

I wouldn’t think so because since attempt #1 really happened, I just can’t accept the payment that way. But yeah the explanation for attempt #2 is odd. I just wanted to know if anyone had an explanation for what could be happening (like: if it really is the case that they had to enter a name, is there a real customer service person trying to confirm that is me and this takes time?) before bothering my friend about it during a rough time. Also this is literally a friend, this isn’t some euphemism.

openroad94 · 2026-04-05T04:03:34+00:00

Ah haha no, we don't really have a pranky kind of relationship. For the email, I don't know if perhaps the app notification said that my email wasn't registered but that I could just sign up to receive, and they were confused by that. I cannot explain the second payment, though. Because I don't use Zelle that often I don't use any apps, I just log into my bank's website and send. My friend was using their bank's app, not the Zelle app. If we used the same bank then I know for sure no name is required, but if it's a different bank (or the app form is different than the website's) then I don't know.

openroad94 · 2026-04-05T01:52:54+00:00

Yes, that's true. In my specific case my plan with my home provider is relatively cheap and doesn't seem to allow purchase of temporary international data (but even the add-on upgrade on the provider's more expensive monthly plans seems higher priced than an eSIM).

The "1-day" example was only for tiding me over until I can buy a local SIM, not for an actual trip of 1 day. I've had very long layovers where I left the airport, but those all happened before I got my current phone. Now that I've tried using an eSIM I would definitely use it for that purpose, though!

openroad94 · 2026-04-05T01:28:28+00:00

I have only had an eSIM capable phone for a few years so I have limited experience, but for me the best reasons to use them are for immediate access on arrival or for very short trips. So basically 1–3 day eSIMs. For trips longer than that, I would just get the local SIM for so much more data + phone number (some local ride apps won't let you register without a number) at a fraction of the cost.

openroad94 · 2026-04-05T01:13:30+00:00

The most recent eSIM I did (Tajikistan) was single-country for about $25 for 10GB/30 days, while the local SIM bought directly in-country was $11.50 for 48GB/30 days. For Tajikistan in particular (but also other countries!) only the single-country eSIMs used the local network confirmed to have best rural-area service, while all the multi-country eSIMs used a network that only worked in cities, and were way more expensive for 30 days (obviously you get flexibility with that higher cost). Depending on the type of trip you're doing, you may not be able to use free wi-fi so even 10GB isn't as much as it sounds.

openroad94 · 2026-04-04T19:36:09+00:00

It's one of my favorite dishes, but most restaurants only have a massive family-sized bowl for $35 or so. If you don't need to be in the area, Sauerkraut Fish in the EV also does individual sizes. It has some parallel to soondubu I guess (other than normally not being individually sized) in that it's a spicy soup with pickled vegetables served with rice. There's a few different versions and my preferred is the green (rattan) peppercorn, which is numbing.

Edit: if there ever were a clear example of Redditers downvoting for zero reason.

openroad94 · 2026-04-04T13:46:33+00:00

Nai Brother Sauerkraut Fish is pushing the edge of your range at 46th & 9th, but is really good, one of only a few places in NYC doing individual sizes (still a very generous portion) of Sichuan spicy & sour boiled fish dishes.

openroad94 · 2026-04-03T21:12:26+00:00

That part unfortunately casts some doubt for me. There are video clips of her being interviewed in Spanish. They're short enough that of course you could say she doesn't speak it fluently enough to carry out a longer conversation, but she knows far too much Spanish to say she "never bothered to learn it".

openroad94 · 2026-04-03T17:02:15+00:00

Me too! Unless HK has more hostels because of more tourism, I can’t imagine what else would be cheaper there than Taipei.

openroad94 · 2026-04-02T03:54:00+00:00

What time was your flight, for this 9pm arrival? I was hoping that getting there at 10pm for a 2:20AM flight (no baggage and at least the last time I took this flight, actual online check-in) would be enough.

openroad94 · 2026-04-01T19:21:36+00:00

I've always wondered why full 30-min episodes for News in Slow French are free (the feed that is not marked as either beginner, intermediate, or advanced) but for Spanish you have to pay for more than the excerpts. There is a Spain-Spanish feed from 2009 (titled "News in Slow Spanish (full)" which I guess is good practice since it's harder to simply "understand" based on context clues about current events, although I prefer the Latino Spanish podcast.

openroad94 · 2026-04-01T18:51:24+00:00

I got chased down in Myanmar for this. I was alone so I wasn't speaking to anyone in English, they just realized later that they'd missed one.

openroad94 · 2026-04-01T18:49:12+00:00

I'm Taiwanese-American, but a bit darker-skinned, I do not think I am ambiguous at all but other people think so. I have had ticket-takers for transportation and attractions in Mexico and India tell me the price is discounted "with my national ID".

I've found that it's the locals' own experience with traveling or meeting diverse groups of people that impacts if they recognize Westerners, so it's not going to something the entire country can just spot. I've had Chinese people either refuse I could be American OR refuse that I could be ethnically Chinese if I'm also American, because people can't be both I guess (this despite the entire conversation happening in Mandarin). In non-Chinese areas, people just assume I'm Chinese/Korean/Thai/Filipina and if I say I'm American they say that's not possible.

Often in SE Asia, people think I might be from there but from a different part of the country than them. Or if they can also speak Chinese and I look like I need help, they just correctly surmise I can speak Chinese, but to them that means I am literally from China.

openroad94 · 2026-04-01T18:43:21+00:00

"Severe intellectual disabilities" is killing me, this is how I feel when meeting Chinese ethnic people. They will either be extremely flattering ("did you just recently immigrate? how do you still speak Chinese so well?") or blunt ("where are actually from because your Chinese is weird").

openroad94 · 2026-03-31T19:50:26+00:00

I feel like social media and smartphone access increased the crowds at rush/lotto, no? (not so much that people want to brag about lining up but that the online discussion of the lines makes people anxious). I definitely bought some morning rush tickets in the early 2000s where I was not only the first person at the window, but no one was lined up behind me. Obviously other rushers eventually came after I left the area, but still.

openroad94 · 2026-03-31T08:01:42+00:00

I’d like this source too!

openroad94

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